Flying Frisbees!

🔅 Recommended Daytime Activity

In 1937, Walter Fredrick Morrison started throwing a popcorn can lid back and forth with his girlfriend at a picnic … and it was fun! This inspired him to invent the Frisbee (initially called the Pluto Platter, the Flyin’ Cake Pan, the Whirlo-Way, and the Flyin-Saucer). This invention was based on a long history of humans throwing frisbee-shaped disks. Thousands of years ago in 708 BC, the discus was introduced as part of the pentathlon in the Ancient Olympics in Greece! Morrison reportedly never really liked the name “Frisbee” for his invention — but that didn’t stop it from becoming a widely popular toy!

Description

Walter Fredrick Morrison’s inspiration for the Frisbee came from a popcorn can lid. What can you and your little inventor use to build your own Frisbee? Let’s see what you can find in the house that flies like a frisbee!”

Materials 

☑ A lid like an oatmeal container lid or a paper plate (or circle cut out of cardboard)

☑ Scissors

☑ Crayons/ markers (optional) 

Set Up 

Here’s how to explain this activity to your child:

• Walter Fredrick Morrison got the idea to invent the frisbee after throwing around a popcorn can lid with his girlfriend. He ended up creating a frisbee — which has provided hours of fun for people and dogs, including the PAW Patrol pups.

• Let’s try creating our own frisbee together! We can either use a lid like an oatmeal container lid or we can create our own frisbee with a paper plate! Or we can create our own with a paper plate. First, let’s trace and then work together to cut out a small circle inside a paper plate so we have a ring of paper. (If we don’t have paper plates, we can create a ring out of cardboard.) Let’s decorate!

• Now, let’s stand about 5 feet apart from one another and throw the frisbee back and forth 3 times. Let’s flick our wrists as we throw.

• Let’s invent the rules for our own indoor frisbee game! Every time we throw it, we have to jump. What other rules should we add to our game?

Extend the Learning

Some dogs are amazing frisbee catchers. Watch the PAW Patrol pups and real-life dogs show off their frisbee skills!

Words to Use 

• Frisbee – a plastic disk that can fly through the air
  

• Invent – to come up with a new idea

• Flick – a quick movement
  

Simplify

Stand together and see how far you can throw the frisbee across the room.

Stretch

Stand farther and farther apart and see how many times you can successfully throw and catch the frisbee.

Why?

Playing with frisbees builds kids’ hand and wrist muscles and coordination.

Conversation Starter

Try asking these questions at lunchtime or dinnertime:

This is a plastic lid, but what could it become? What are the silliest, craziest inventions we can imagine?